Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

König Rother

(Encyclopedia)König Rother könˈĭk rōtˈər [key], earliest heroic minstrel epic from the precourtly period of Middle High German literature. Written in Bavaria in popular verse style by an unknown Rhenish poet...

Parrington, Vernon Louis

(Encyclopedia)Parrington, Vernon Louis, 1871–1929, American literary historian and scholar, b. Aurora, Ill. His cultural interpretation of American literature was an expression of his belief in democratic idealis...

Berlin, Free University of

(Encyclopedia)Berlin, Free University of, at Berlin, Germany; founded in 1948 by students and faculty seceding from Humboldt Univ. in East Berlin. Supported by both the city of Berlin and the German government, it ...

Syracuse University

(Encyclopedia)Syracuse University, main campus at Syracuse, N.Y.; coeducational; chartered 1870, opened 1871. Syracuse is noted for its research programs in government and industry; facilities include the Center fo...

Suidas

(Encyclopedia)Suidas syo͞oˈĭdəs [key], title of a Greek lexicon-encyclopedia. The name is also applied to its compiler, who seems to have lived in the 10th cent. a.d. Included in the lexicon are texts from clas...

Sumarokov, Aleksandr Petrovich

(Encyclopedia)Sumarokov, Aleksandr Petrovich əlyĭksänˈdər pētrôˈvĭch so͞omərôˈkəf [key], 1718–77, Russian dramatist and poet. Sumarokov wrote fables, satires, lyrics, and comic odes in the classical...

Seifert, Jaroslav

(Encyclopedia)Seifert, Jaroslav, 1901–86, Czech poet. Starting as a revolutionary “proletarian” poet, Seifert soon began to emphasize fantasy and enchantment as antidotes to modern technological civilization....

Rustico di Filippo

(Encyclopedia)Rustico di Filippo ro͞oˈstēkō dē fēlēpˈpō [key], 13th cent. Italian poet. He was perhaps one of the first to use the Tuscan dialect in literature. Some 60 of his sonnets, most of them in a bu...

phoenix, in mythology

(Encyclopedia)phoenix, fabulous bird that periodically regenerated itself, used in literature as a symbol of death and resurrection. According to legend, the phoenix lived in Arabia; when it reached the end of its ...

Rheinsberg

(Encyclopedia)Rheinsberg rīnsˈbĕrk [key], town, Potsdam dist., NE Germany. It is a tourist and manufacturing center. The rococo palace in Rheinsberg was the residence (1736–40) of Crown Prince Frederick, later...